batteries & storage
major automakers like Nissan. “Our device looks like a stan- dard Level 3 charging station, sometimes called a fast DC charger,” said Hammell. So, it can both charge the vehicle’s battery or draw power to feed the grid through the standard charging plug on the vehicle. “It decides when and how to either charge the battery or discharge it depending on condi- tions and needs of the user and grid,” he explained.
actually helps keep the grid at 60 Hz, a vital and important service. “A battery on the electric grid can help provide this regulation service better than a traditional power plant,” claimed Hammell.
The entry of PPS into the V2G world came about not only because its nifty technology attracted the interest of a major EV OEM like Nissan. It also took a little matchmaking—from the US Department of Defense. Perhaps surprisingly, Los Angeles Air Force Base (El Se- gundo, CA) was one of the first adopters of inverter-enabled microgrid power distribution. The DoD in general was given a “green mandate” Executive Order that requires it to use the most environmentally friendly product if—when compared to other products—the actual dollar costs are comparable. Expanding that mandate to transportation, members of the military wanted to use the Nissan Leaf EV as pool cars, according to Hammell. They needed more than a simple one-way charger to fully use the vehicle’s capabilities and maximize the investment.
“The fact that our grid-tied inverters can actually con-
trol the battery in the Nissan Leaf was attractive to [the Air Force],” he said. Deploying them at the Air Force base was a collaboration between the three parties. “The military is a big energy user and they set up a pilot program to determine if a Nissan Leaf could provide comparable value to a conven- tional car through using its battery for V2G as well as for the Department’s transport needs,” Hammell said. In the program one PPS model GTIB-15-C charging station is used to ser- vice one V2G-capable Nissan Leaf.
The Princeton Power Systems GTIB-30 is a 30-kW grid- tied inverter that charges a battery as well as drains power from it to feed to a grid, whether the battery is in a vehicle or stationary.
Have Battery, Will Connect According to Hammell, one important way to generate cash is through frequency regulation. “This is a paid service that powerplants typically provide. Every coal-fired or gas-fired plant in the US bills their grid operator to provide this frequency regulation,” he said. Not only do the plants balance the load by charging when demand is low and sending power back when demand is high, but the service
Air Force Pilot Program Flies High The pilot program, according to the Air Force, was suc- cessful enough to expand from Los Angeles AFB to Joint Base Andrews, MD, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ, and Fort Hood, TX. According to an Air Force press release, the V2G project in California is the largest such demonstra- tion in the world.
One of the questions the DoD sought to answer with the initial program was exactly how much revenue could be generated per month per vehicle. And that is based on how many kilowatts can be fed into the grid. That in turn is based on a threshold set by utility regulators. “In the PJM region, covering the northeast and mid- Atlantic,” Hammond said, “the minimum number of kilowatts
28 — Energy Manufacturing 2016
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